Of Struthionidae struthio

When the going gets tough, transparency and openness are always the first victims of political anxiety.

Unless someone like David Demerjian takes interest, public officials are fully aware no cops work the open-government beat, enforcing the 54-year-old state law known as the Brown Act.

In a reporter's calculations, it didn't seem unreasonable to expect a story about likely violations of state law would at least earn a call back from City Hall.

In my anxiety to offer full opportunities for response from the city, I went so far as to file an odd public records request on Thursday for a list of city-owned cell phone numbers for executive/cabinet-level staff. Nobody should want or be asked to work reporters' hours, but every other week is a three-day weekend for City Hall.

Being unavailable doesn't stop reporting from happening and it would seem reasonable to take a call from a reporter, even while off-duty. Now not returning calls during the work week? That's just weird. And telling.